A Child of Two Houses
by FeistyMouse
Summary: An unexpected discovery at an abandoned Cadmus warehouse will change the lives of Kara, Alex and Lena forever. Will it bring them closer than they've ever been before or will it tear them apart beyond repair?
1. The Abandoned Boy

"Winn, are you sure this is the place?" Alex asks quietly.

She, Supergirl, J'onn and a strike team have been sent to a fairly remote location where Cadmus is suspected to be hiding out.

The building is old and crumbling and water drips from the roof, creating little puddles on the floor. They can smell the damp and the rot, although Lillian Luthor could do that to any place. Lights flicker intermittently, giving the hallway an eerie feel as the lights reflect in the pools of water that splash under their feet.

They haven't seen or heard any movement yet, which is surprising because Cadmus usually have people standing guard, so Alex wants to be sure that this is the place they've received the tip-off about.

"C'mon, Alex, would I lie to you?" Winn jokes from his desk, throwing a bouncy ball against the floor and then almost missing the catch.

"Uh, yeah! Remember that time you tried to tell me that my computer was _just broken_?" Alex whispers, her voice sarcastically creating air quotes around the last two words, causing Winn to wince.

Winn is uneasily silent on the other end of the comms and Alex knows that he knows exactly what's coming.

"I know you spilled coffee on my keyboard. So I turned the heads on every one of your action figures the other way."

"That was you? They are collectibles, not action figures and they're _fragile_! Alex-"

"Settle down, agents," J'onn commands.

As Alex looks over to her sister and J'onn, she can see that Kara is almost pink from trying to stifle a giggle and even J'onn is smirking.

"Sorry Papa Bear - Sir!"

Kara bites down on her lip as she tries not to laugh as Winn keeps digging himself deeper and deeper and she can see Alex roll her eyes and sigh, although she's clearly amused.

J'onn holds out his hands, signalling for everyone to stop. Every member of the team freezes in place and the sudden silence deafens everyone, even Kara.

She knows that the silence means that Cadmus have likely disappeared from the building; they are notorious for upping and leaving almost as quickly as they can be detected, although they have been known to use noise-blocking technology to dampen her hearing.

Kara looks over at Alex and sees the focus in her eyes as she awaits J'onn's next command.

They've come to a t-point in the corridor so J'onn carefully peers around the corner to ensure that they're not walking straight into any Cadmus agents, especially as they still haven't come across any yet.

The agents that Alex had sent to the building's other entrance do the same on the opposite side of the corridor. J'onn signals that their path is clear and he rounds the corner first, Alex and Kara on his heels.

This hallway is exactly the same in appearance as every other they've had the misfortune of walking through so far; it's dingy and poorly lit and bits of plaster and paint hang from the walls and ceiling, the only difference being the old wooden door that lies ajar at the bottom of it.

"Supergirl," J'onn whispers so quietly that only she can hear him. "What do you see?"

Kara stops and squints into the dark hallway. The whole building is 'conveniently' lined with lead, so Kara hadn't been able to do a quick sweep before they went inside, leaving them blind.

"I can't see anything, sir," she replies, a little frustrated. "Even the door has lead in it."

An audible sigh from Winn sounds down the comms, echoing the feelings of Kara and Alex. "Who puts lead in a door?"

"Someone who very clearly doesn't want us to find them," Alex mutters. "Someone who knows exactly what they're doing."

Kara begins to close the distance to the door. Alex and J'onn follow her closely. She stops in front of it, studies the way that little chips and chunks are missing at the edges like it has been violently slammed closed one time too many.

Alex crouches, examining the lines that travel from the bottom of the door towards its edge. "J'onn," she says, concern etched in her voice. "These scratches were made by fingernails."

Alex feels a little sick. Someone would have to have been fighting hard to cling to the door and cause that much surface damage to it. She didn't even want to imagine how scared they must have been and how desperately they must have wanted to escape that they would find the strength to tear chunks from wood.

Her hatred for Cadmus burns ever deeper in her soul as she stands up and unclenches a fist that she hadn't even realised was balled.

"Alex?" Kara says worriedly when she sees that her sister's face has paled.

"I'm good," Alex says quickly. "You ready?"

Kara looks at her sister with steely determination and nods once. She bursts through the door first, ready to take on as many Cadmus operatives as come her way.

But they don't.

Alex materialises at her sister's side, J'onn on her other and they look at each other, perplexed, as the other agents move around them.

The large room is empty of people other than themselves.

Lights hang loosely from the mouldy ceiling and the windows are boarded up, leaving only little cracks of light fighting their way into the dark room. Unsettled dust swirls in the light, interrupted by the heavy footprints of the DEO agents as they cautiously advance a little further into the room.

It is littered with empty wooden crates and metal tables, their stools fallen and strewn across the room like their owners left in a hurry. Sheets of paper sit on the tables, flapping around in the cold gust of air that leaves the hairs on the back of Kara and Alex's necks standing on end.

"Something's not right about this place," Kara says, her eyes darting around the room as they try to take everything in. Her crinkle sits proudly between her eyes, her discomfort plain across her face. "It's so cold in here."

"Why not take everything? Why leave this here?" J'onn wonders aloud, looking into a box filled with what looks like surgical instruments.

Alex thinks. "Maybe they knew that we were onto them? They grabbed what they could and left?"

J'onn nods, bringing his hand to his chin in thought as he assesses the situation.

'Wait," Kara directs. Her eyes fall on an opaque plastic curtain that hangs in the far corner, drawn closed. "There's someone over there."

Her x-ray vision reveals a figure huddled behind the curtain.

J'onn brings his fingers to his temple and closes his eyes. "I can't read their mind, something's stopping me."

Alex begins to slowly advance towards the curtain.

"Agent Danvers, what're you doing?" J'onn whisper shouts.

Alex doesn't stop walking. "Finding out what they know."

Kara matches her sister's footsteps while J'onn and his agents hang back.

"We see you in there," Alex shouts, her voice carrying through the room.

When no reply comes, Alex looks over to her sister who shakes her head.

The person hasn't moved.

Alex and Kara stop in front of the curtain.

Alex raises her hand to grab it while Kara readies herself in case the person behind it suddenly becomes hostile.

Alex holds three fingers in the air and counts down before yanking the curtain so hard that the rail falls from the wall.

A startling crash ricochets around the room as the metal pole falls to the concrete floor.

Kara and Alex absorb the sight in front of them.

A single hospital bed is pressed to the corner of the room, its sheets untucked and dishevelled.

Underneath sits a boy of around eighteen, his knees tucked tightly into his chest, making himself as small as he can. His elbows secure his knees but his hands grip his ears and his eyes are tightly scrunched closed.

"Agent Danvers?" J'onn says.

Alex holds her hand up in an effort to keep the room quiet. She looks at Kara, who looks equally as confused as she feels.

Why is there a boy hiding in the corner of an abandoned building formerly occupied by Cadmus?

Alex crouches in front of him. His clothes are tatty and torn, his dark medium-length hair a knotted mess and swept in all directions. Sweat shines on his skin but he shivers like he's cold and he rocks himself gently, mumbling something incoherent.

"Alex!" Kara whispers hurriedly as Alex extends her arm towards the boy. "This could be a trap!"

Alex ignores her sister. She gently places her hand on his arm.

The boy's eyes snap open. He scrambles further into the corner, further under the bed, cowers against the wall and curls further into himself. Alex can feel him shaking.

He's a trembling bundle of nerves.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," she says soothingly. "We're not gonna hurt you."

His eyes watch Alex as she kneels in front of him before looking up at Kara stood over her shoulder.

"Alex-"

Alex waves her sister's protests away, all her attention on the boy.

"Can you tell me your name?"

The boy says nothing, his hands still covering his ears. His eyes lock onto Alex's and she can see the fear in them.

They look familiar.

They're dark brown, almost identical to hers and she can't shake the feeling that she's seen them somewhere else before.

But she doesn't know this boy.

"It's okay," she tries again, shrugging off the feeling. She puts her hands over the boys' and gently tries to pull them away from his ears.

At first, he resists, so Alex loosens her hold. Eventually, he allows her to slowly move his hands away from his head.

He still looks scared but Alex feels like she's making progress.

She gently lowers his hands so that they rest against his knees.

"My name is Alex," she says, smiling at the boy in an effort to make him feel more comfortable. "And this is Supergirl."

The boy looks up at Kara again. "Su..per..girl?" His voice is shaky like he's been crying.

"Yes, that's right!" Alex says with another smile. "Now can you tell me your name?"

It's only slight, but the boy shakes his head. "M-my mother says… I d-don't deserve my n-name."

His words tug at Alex's heart. "I'm sure that's not true, sweetie," she says gently.

Kara crouches next to her sister, following her lead. "Everybody has a name no matter what your mom says."

The boy looks between them both.

"Go ahead," Alex says reassuringly.

The boy swallows hard, his eyebrows furrowing together. "Lee..viii."

"Good! That's a lovely name. Okay, Levi-"

Alex is cut off when the boy speaks again.

"Levi…. Danvers…. Luthor."


	2. The Twisted Truth

**Thank you for your reviews and guesses as to who Levi's parents are! All will be revealed.**

 **Just a quick warning, there are mentions of torture.**

Alex watches from the entrance of the med bay as Levi sits on the edge of one of the beds, Doctor Hamilton scribbling some notes onto a clipboard.

She sees the way he takes in his foreign surroundings, his eyes wide and inquisitive just like Kara's were when she first arrived on Earth. He seems far more relaxed and calm compared to when they first found him, though Alex can see the way his hands grip the bed sheets like he's not completely accepted that he's safe, that no one at the DEO wants to hurt him.

"How's he doing?" Kara asks, coming to a stop beside her sister, her arms folded across her stomach.

"Good, I think," Alex replies, not taking her eyes off Levi.

His words back at the Cadmus warehouse float around in her head.

 _My mother says I don't deserve my name…_

 _Danvers…_

 _Luthor…_

And his eyes.

Alex couldn't shake the feeling that she knows those eyes the whole way back to the DEO. Even Kara had passed comment about them to her and that only cemented in her mind something she still desperately hoped was not true.

But when Alex had questioned him there and then, he seemed afraid to answer. As desperate as she was to find out what he meant, she could see how distressed Levi was and didn't want to scare him into silence, so she decided it could wait until later.

She is snapped out of her daydream when Doctor Hamilton beckons them into the room. Both Alex and Kara offer Levi a smile and receive a small one in return.

"We're all done here," Hamilton declares. "Levi seems healthy, but there are a few things I'd like to discuss with both of you."

That sounds ominous, Kara thinks.

It's Alex who speaks next. "Could you give us a minute?"

The doctor nods and makes to leave the room. "I'll be in my office when you're ready."

Alex and Kara return their attention to Levi, who looks between them.

"Okay Levi," Alex begins, not wanting to leave him on his own. "Do you like computers?"

"Sure," he replies quietly, non-committaly.

"Then why don't we go annoy Winn?" Alex exclaims, raising a cheeky eyebrow in encouragement. "I'm sure he'd be happy to show you his new tablet."

"Yeah, 'cos he's showed it to everyone. Twice," Kara adds, rolling her eyes dramatically, drawing a small smile from Levi.

"And I'm pretty sure he has all the old Tomb Raider games loaded onto it," Alex says, offering a hand to Levi to help him down from the bed. "And the new ones!"

He takes it, but his face scrunches in confusion. "What's Tomb Raider?"

Kara looks taken aback, bordering on offended. "What's Tomb Raider? It is only the coolest female-lead videogame franchise of all time! You haven't lived until you've played Tomb Raider." Kara gestures wildly as she speaks to show that she's only half-kidding.

"But my mom says videogames corrupt your mind," Levi replies sadly. "And a corrupt mind is no use to anyone."

"I won't tell her if you don't," Alex mutters with a wink, though his statement makes Alex feel a little sad because he's only a kid but clearly hasn't been allowed to be one.

Levi takes a moment to think. "Okay," he agrees, hopping down from the bed. "I am ready to raid tombs. Take me to Winn."

/

"You might want to sit down for this," Doctor Hamilton warns as Alex closes her office door behind Kara, who smoothes her cape as she sits down.

Hamilton taps away on her tablet before quickly checking something that she had scribbled on her clipboard earlier.

"Levi is human," she begins. "But he's unlike anything we've seen before."

"How?" Kara asks before Alex can. Hamilton takes a deep breath to organise her thoughts and her answer before she speaks again. "He looks to be around eighteen or nineteen; that's what his height and weight and bone structure would suggest."

"So?" Alex prompts.

"His blood results show that Levi is twelve."

Alex frowns and glances at Kara, whose crinkle has formed proudly between her brow.

"How is that possible?" Kara asks, knowing that Alex will likely understand the answer better than she will.

"I cannot say for certain, though Levi himself may have the answer. Based upon my other findings, it appears that Levi has been used as an experiment. It's not entirely impossible that he's been given an ageing drug."

Alex and Kara are speechless.

That sweet, quiet, innocent young man is actually a twelve-year-old boy.

And that boy has been tortured and experimented on like a lab rat and then left in the cold, dumped like a piece of trash.

Alex feels her anger growing, wants to get her hands on whoever did this to him.

"What do you mean by your 'other findings'?" Kara asks hesitantly, her eyebrow raised.

"X-rays and other data obtained shows that Levi's body has suffered from severe trauma. Most of his bones have been broken at some point, some are held together by strips of metal and whoever put him back together has done a poor job. To be honest, it's a miracle that he can walk and talk."

"It's a miracle that he's even alive," Alex growls.

Kara sees Alex's fist clench and quickly reaches out to put a calming hand on it.

"Considering the amount of stress and pain that will undoubtedly have been inflicted on his body, Levi's mental wellbeing is significantly better than we would have expected, though it's difficult to know much more at such an early stage."

Alex has to bite her lip to stop tears from falling.

She doesn't even know this boy but hates the thought of him being hurt, of him being tortured by Cadmus.

"Unfortunately," Doctor Hamilton continues, "I couldn't get him to open up to me, but he seems to have formed an attachment to the both of you."

"I'll talk to him," Alex whispers, letting Kara's hand take her own.

"We'll do it together, Lex," Kara says softly, squeezing Alex's hand.

Alex looks over at her sister and is grateful for her reassurance, sees her own gloom reflected in her face.

Alex sighs sadly. "Let's go get it over with."

/

Alex and Kara stride purposefully into the main room of the DEO.

The sight that greets them sits bittersweetly in their stomachs.

Levi is sitting beside Winn at his desk, Tomb Raider paused on his monitor and his tablet. Levi looks engrossed by what Winn is telling him as they sit surrounded by Winn's many figures that lie strewn across his desk.

Alex has to force herself to interrupt them; she doesn't want to run the moment, especially not for the conversation they're about to have.

"Alex broke the head off that one last time I annoyed her," Winn says seriously, gingerly holding a figure in his hand. "She knows that Superman is my favourite of all- hey, Supergirl! Alex!" Winn suddenly shrinks back into his chair, willing it to swallow him up.

"What are you filling his head with?" Kara teases, braving a smile despite this being the opposite of what she's feeling on the inside.

"I was actually telling him all about your cousin," Winn says matter-of-factly, though he's still slumped in his chair.

"And I kicked his ass at Tomb Raider," Levi declares proudly.

"That I can believe," Kara says, glancing at Winn to see his face pull into a disbelieving, offended frown.

"Uh, Levi, can we talk to you for a minute?" Alex asks.

Levi nods and gets up from his chair when Alex gestures for him to follow.

"Bye Winn!" He shouts over his shoulder. "I'll be back to kick your ass at Mario Kart 8 later!"

"That you absolutely will," Alex agrees as she leads them to a quiet room. "Winn sucks at videogames."

/

Levi makes himself comfortable on one of the couches in the quiet room as Kara and Alex sit on the one opposite him.

The room is painted sky blue and is intended to give it a serene, calming feel, much the opposite of the dark greys that line the rest of the DEO. Many agents use these rooms to unwind and de-stress after responding to callouts or to take a break during a long shift.

While Kara has her own room with Alura's hologram, Alex often retreats to this particular room because she finds that it keeps her calm and improves her concentration, which are some of the most important qualities a DEO agent requires.

Right now though, not even the soothing blues and pale greens and bright yellows splashed across the walls and furniture could keep her calm in the inside or help her to organise her thoughts.

"Am I in trouble?" Levi asks quietly when no one speaks for a moment.

Alex is quick to answer, wanting to reassure Levi that his question couldn't be further from the truth. "Of course not! You've done nothing wrong, Levi. What makes you think that you have?"

Levi shrugs non-commitally, casting his eyes down to the ground. "My mother always told me that I was naughty, a bad seed who would grow to be twisted and ruin the Luthor name."

"Who's your mom, Levi?" Kara asks gently.

The boy suddenly looks a little frightened. "My dad said I shouldn't tell you. He said you'd get mad."

Alex takes a deep breath as she decides to come back to the question later. "Okay, that's okay. How old are you?"

"Twelve," he replies without hesitation. "And a half."

"But you don't look twelve, sweetie," Alex says gently. "Do you know why you look so much older?"

Levi nods so lightly it's barely even a nod.

"Can you tell us?" Kara tries, sensing the boy's mood changing as he becomes more uncomfortable.

Levi takes a moment before he answers. His eyes are fixed on a point on the wall and never move from it as he speaks. "She experimented on me. She wanted to test a new serum but it all went wrong."

 _Experimented._

Alex and Kara know that Cadmus are sick and inhuman, that they'll go to the most extreme lengths to reach their warped goals, but to experiment on a twelve-year-old?

There isn't even a word to describe how perverse, how wicked that is.

"I'm sorry, Levi," Alex says quietly, moving across the room to sit next to him on the couch.

His eyes finally move from the wall and look up into Alex's.

"Do you know why they left you?" Alex asks.

Levi nods again. "My dad said that it was to protect me from my mom. He said that you would find me and that I would be safe with you."

Alex glances towards Kara and sees the mixture of shock and sadness in her face.

She wonders how this boy's father knew they would help him. How could he know that the DEO, that Alex would find him, that he wouldn't be put into one of the glass cases in case he was a threat?

Which he still could be.

But Alex senses that Levi is telling the truth, that he isn't trying to deceive them, that he isn't working for Cadmus and isn't being used as a pawn in their game.

"Levi," Alex says a little more firmly but still kindly. "Can you tell us who your parents are?"

Levi shakes his head vigorously. "No. I don't want to make you mad at me."

"We promise we won't be mad at you," Kara says honestly. "Don't we, Alex?"

Alex looks from Kara to Levi. She draws an X over her chest. "Cross my heart," she promises with a small reassuring smile.

Levi takes a deep breath to steady himself.

He likes Alex and Kara, just like his dad promised he would. They're nothing like his mother said they were; they're kind and caring and friendly.

He doesn't want to make them mad or sad, but eventually he gives them the answer to their question.

"My mom is Lillian Luthor," he begins hesitantly, seeing Kara and Alex's expressions change.

 _That explains a lot,_ Alex thinks.

But nothing can prepare either sister for what comes next.

"My dad is Jeremiah Danvers."


End file.
